Maclean and Vigland take Cote Dame Marie

Sun, Feb
21, 2010 - By Mike Muha

The day was about perfect for the Cote Dame Mare, formerly the Michigan Cup Marathon. Sunny skies, no wind, and a great course made for excellent racing. Glide waxing was the only challenge. Areas near Grayling were -3F, far colder than the temperature reported at Gaylord (12F) for an overnight low. Early arrivers to the race witnessed hoarfrost in the trees caused by the trees being colder than the surrounding air. But the temperature was to rise quickly to 20F by race time and keep on rising...into the 30s. Wax for the colder snow temperatures at the start of the race, or for the warmer track conditions later in the race? How fast would the snow temperature catch up to the air temperature?

Michigan Cup races

Maybe it was the wax, but more likely it was the fitness and technique of Dave Maclean and Susan Vigland that made them the the Champions of the first Cote Dame Mare. Maclean finished the 30K (actually, closer to 26.3K) race in 1:11:13.7. Jeff Koch of Elk Rapids was a few seconds behind in second in 1:11:22.5. Bringing in third in 1:15:01.3 was John Gravlin.

Russ Tiles leads John Gravlin and Stephen Smigiel early in the 30K freestyle. The skiers eventually finish 5th, 3rd and 6th. (photo: Kelly Mikolajczyk)

The Michigan Cup women raced 15K. Vigland took first in 41:33.3, only a second in front of Amy Powell-Wichern (41:34.4). Brenda Carlson took third in 43:29.9.

Citizen Races

Tammy Bowers took top honor in the Citizen Racers 15K classic, winning in 1:14:01.4. There was no skate division.

Grayling's Jorden Wakeley was the fastest skater in the Citizen Racers 15K skate with a time of 41:27.1 Monte Ward was top in the 15K Men's Classic with a time of 1:15:14.7.

Full results from all races below.

Amy Powell-Wichern (105) and Susan Vigland battle it out the entire race, from beginning to end. (photo: Kelly Mikolajczyk)